An endoscope conventionally comprises an elongated tubular shaft, rigid or flexible, having a video camera and/or a fiber optic lens assembly at its distal end. Various surgical tools may be inserted through a working channel in the endoscope for performing different surgical procedures. Endoscopes, such as colonoscopes, that are currently being used, typically have a front camera for viewing the internal organ, such as the colon, an illuminator, a fluid injector for cleaning the camera lens, and a working channel for insertion of surgical tools, for example, for removing polyps found in the colon. Often, endoscopes also have fluid injectors (“jet”) for cleaning a body cavity, such as the colon, into which they are inserted. The illuminators commonly used are fiber optics which transmit light, generated remotely, to the endoscope tip section.
Endoscopes having multiple viewing elements, such as cameras, generate multiple video feeds which require display. These video feeds are typically generated in native or standard square formats of aspect ratios 4:3 or 5:4. Such native square formatted video feeds when displayed on widescreen or rectangular monitors cause ‘pillar-boxing’ if not modulated to fit the widescreen but result in unacceptable image/video distortion if modulated to fill the entire widescreen.
Hence, the video feeds generated by a plurality of viewing elements of an endoscopic tip are processed such that the video feeds can be displayed appropriately on a plurality of advantageous configurations of widescreen monitors. Usually three monitors (a left, a center and a right side monitor) are placed side-by-side or contiguously. In some cases, the three monitors together provide a panoramic view based on an overlap between fields of view of the three viewing elements (front-looking and the two side-looking viewing elements).
There is need for an arrangement for supporting the monitors so that they may be viewed by an operating physician with ease.